Kazan authorities about BRICS Summit: ‘It helped the city to find funds for what they previously lacked’

“The construction season is coming to an end, and our preparatory work with it”

Mass preparations for the upcoming international event, BRICS Summit, have been underway in Kazan for more than a year. It will be held in the capital of Tatarstan in a month — from October 22 to 24.

Ilsur Metshin, the mayor of the city, noted that holding major international events in the city contributes to its development and prosperity. According to him, the simultaneous holding of many events creates certain difficulties in the process of urban improvement. In the last few months alone, Kazan has hosted many world-class events: BRICS Games and its literary forum, Kazan Digital Week, etc. Considerable funds have been allocated to prepare for them.

“Communications, logistics and transport, security and public spaces — holding such grandiose events helped the city to find funds for what they previously lacked," said Metshin. “The construction season is coming to an end, and our preparatory work with it. Our area of responsibility is the implementation of approved programs for the repair of roads, networks, facades, public spaces, and the preparation of accommodation facilities.”

Which took almost 8 billion

According to Igor Kulyazhev, the deputy head of the Executive Committee of Kazan, 7.9 billion rubles were allocated for the preparation of urban improvement facilities. Of these, 6.1 billion rubles were spent on road works, and 1.8 billion — on the improvement of public spaces. Initially, it was reported that 4.9 billion rubles would be spent for these purposes.

Road repairs: works have already been completed on 23 of the 29 planned road sections.

Lighting: 17 out of 22 repair facilities have been commissioned — about 26 kilometres of cable lines, 1,074 power transmission poles and almost 4,000 lamps.

Stairs replacement: 12 objects were made, over 400 metres of barrier fences and 1,000 urns have been installed. Three underpasses were repaired: on Baturina, Tashayak and Said-Galeeva streets.

The repair of overhead crossings and installation of elevators: all works have been completed on the Orenburg tract and at the intersection of Pavlyukhina and Khaleva streets. Commissioning works are already underway at three other facilities, and the installation of elevators is being completed at the crossing along Amirkhana-Chistopolskaya Streets.

In the field of public spaces in the city, work is underway on 18 projects, of which seven have already been completed.

These include Millennium Park, Bolaq channel, where 56 fountains were installed, Bauman Street, Millennium Square near the Kremlin walls, Kotelnikov and Korotchenko squares, as well as the entrance stele to the city from the Orenburgsky Tract.

Only the entrance group to the Gorky Central Park remains unfinished

The work is underway there to renovate the monument and build an underground pedestrian crossing, as well as a stop opposite Korston.

They again promised to complete all the works soon — this time before October 6. According to Kulyazhev, the delay in the delivery of works is due to difficulties in removing engineering communications from the pavilion under construction.

Let us remind that the completion of works has been postponed several times. In early July 2023, the underpass and the stop near Gorky Park were closed for three months. In the same winter, the deadline was postponed again, but for an indefinite time. Eventually, the crossing was supposed to open on August 30, 2024.

79 hotels and more than 400 volunteers

On the eve of the BRICS Summit, some of the hotels that are to be ready for the event have not yet reported on their readiness. Among them: six hotels, eight guest houses on the Millennium, which have not yet been put into operation, as well as two apartment buildings in the M14 microdistrict, which are being completed by the State Housing Fund to accommodate BRICS personnel, and 18 hotels.

The head of the Tourism Development Committee, Daria Sannikova, reported that Tatarstan has offered a total of 79 hotels from two to five stars for accommodation. Fifty-five of them are located directly in the capital of the republic.

“Inspections of hotels are regularly carried out, where the repair status of additional rooms, as well as adjacent territories, is checked. Work is underway in 14 hotels to create rooms of higher categories," Sannikova said.

The speaker added that almost every place would definitely have English-speaking staff, and the accommodation itself would offer guests dishes of Tatar cuisine, a halal menu and the necessary religious paraphernalia. In total, more than 20,000 guests are expected to visit Kazan.

Maxim Denisov, the director of the Directorate of Sports and Social Projects, added that about 400 volunteers will come to the city for the event, one third of them are residents of Tatarstan, and most of them are representatives of Moscow and St. Petersburg, who have “experience in holding presidential events in the last two years”.

A security issue

During the BRICS Summit, enhanced controls will be introduced at the main facility — Kazan Expo, as well as at the airport and hotel adjacent to it. Entry to the territory will be carried out only with passes of the Federal Protective Service (FGS of Russia).

A special security regime will be in effect at Kazan Expo itself, and therefore the entry of vehicles into the territory will be prohibited.

As Maxim Denisov, the director general of the Directorate of Sports and Social Projects, explained, “motorcades and other members of the delegations will be delivered only by electric trains from Vakhitovo station. No other transport will be allowed.”

Earlier, Realnoe Vremya reported that it is planned to limit parking and stopping of motor transport at the railway station and on the streets adjacent to it.